The huge landing port on the coastal city of Tivoras was bustling with activities as workers hastily cleared the pad. Signal lights were placed in a circle around the pad as the winds picked up around the workers as a dark shadow overlapped them. A few of the rookies turned their heads up in disbelief as the massive Iron Bird slowly descended downward.
Several hatches opened along its bottom revealing landing gears that stretched out from beneath the massive air ship as it landed down. The ground shook as the Iron Bird touched down, its engine sputtering as the propellers slowly came to a stop. Standing there majestically before the workers, the crew quickly started to hustle again as they started to perform numerous tests and check ups on the air ship.
The head of the workers made a beeline for the opening doorway of the Iron Bird, stopping just a bit in front of the extending platform that touched down the pad. Val slowly came down the platform balancing himself with his crutch as he went. Following him was Lina, Gourry, and Jedah taking a moment to look at their surrounding.
"Welcome to Tivoras, Lord Val." The head saluted to Val as the Ryuzoku reached the platform. "Your visit to here was quite abrupt," he added as he quickly followed Val's pace as they headed off of the landing pad.
"I apologize for the inconvenience," Val replied with a nod. "Things are proceeding with an alarming pace."
"I understand."
"Have you completed the preparation?"
Shaking his head, the head remarked, "The Mayor has men working on it as we speak, but to organize such an expedition on the amount of time you have given... I'm afraid it is simply beyond our ability to handle."
"Very well," Val sighed as he paused for a moment, "How much longer do you need?"
"At least three days in order to hire the necessary people and gather the supplies."
"I thank you for your cooperation."
"It has been a pleasure to serve you," the head bowed, "your accommodations have already been dealt with. They will be ready for your needs."
Val nodded as the Head saluted again before turning around and walking back toward the launch pad that was bustling with activity. Lina stepped out of his way as she watched him go off a bit before turning to observe Val.
"You have something to ask of me?" Val inquired noting her gaze.
"Lina is just wondering why are we here," Jedah interjected patting Lina on the back, "Isn't that right?"
"Yes, it is, but you don't have to say it for me!" Lina scowled shaking Jedah back and forth like a rag doll. Dropping him unceremoniously, Lina dusted her hand off and added, "After what happened in the Prison Lounge, you have been rather quiet about everything."
"Yes," Val muttered as he looked off to the sprawling city below, "I'll tell you the reason why we are here in due time."
"Oh mysterious," Jedah beamed before Lina whacked him with her fist.
"Baka," she muttered angrily a rather large stress mark on her head.
Scratching his head, Gourry sighed, "Boy, you just don't give him a break do you?"
"Hey, you didn't have to listen to him throughout the entire trip here." Lina accused as Gourry just raised an eyebrow at the accusation.
"Well, that's because I was asleep the whole time. Don't you remember that?" he remarked.
Flames started to flick around Lina as her anger reached an all time new high, Lina yelled, "Why must I be stuck with such idiots!"
A huge dust cloud rose up and swallowed Gourry, Lina, and Jedah as images of Lina's fist and the other two battered heads could be made out. Keeping his back to the rather ugly display of immaturity, a few frayed hairs of Val were sticking out.
"This isn't good," he muttered absently.
A rather large explosion shook the hillside they were on as everyone froze where they were to look at the massive cloud of smoke that was rising from the city. Several areas of the town were in ruins as fire seemed to be blazing through them out of control. The once peaceful image of tranquility was shattered as screams echoed from the people.
Turning to face the three, Val ordered, "Lina. Gourry. Jedah. The enemies have made their move already."
"What is going on?" Lina gaped looking at all of the destruction below.
"It's a preemptive strike, find the enemy and eliminate them," he ordered as the three nodded.
Gourry gripped his sword as he raced down the hillside to the town, while Lina chanted a Ray Wing spell and flew down to the town. Watch the two go, Val blinked for a moment as he turned to notice Jedah was still standing where he was before. Noticing Val's gaze, Jedah smiled cheerfully as he waved at Val.
"Why are you still here?" Val remarked sweatdropping.
Smirking, as he folded his arm against the chest, Jedah commented, "Because."
"Because what?"
"I don't know," Jedah shrugged, "Sore wa Himitsu desu?"
Val face-faulted to the ground creating several cracks along the ground from his impact as Jedah's face gaped a bit. Looking at Val's twitching form, Jedah quickly decided it would be a good time to go down to town and investigate the attacks.
Lina was the first to reach it as she flew over the buildings looking down at the fleeing crowd of people from the area of destruction. She quickly settled down near the abandoned area, surrounding her were several collapsed and burning buildings. The heat from the flames was barely bearable as Lina strode through the ruins.
Observing the area, there was much rubble all over the place and scorched marks everywhere, something was obviously missing. Another quick sweep around the place confirmed her suspicion as she stopped in her tracks.
There weren't any bodies or even blood around.
All that was damaged were buildings and furniture, quite destructive devastation, but not a single hurt person or even spilt blood in sight. Lina's ear perked a bit as she heard the sound of boots crunching bits of rubble underfoot.
Charging a flare arrow in her pal, Lina swerved around to unleash the spell.
Time almost stood still for Lina, as just in the corner of her eyes, she could see a strange white cloaked figure passing right by her. Blinking her eyes in surprise, she turned her head back as that same figure stood right behind her.
"Gaah," Lina choked stumbling forward a bit as her spell fizzled. Noting that the figure didn't react, she grumbled, "Hey, it's not nice to sneak up on a lady like that. Didn't your Mom teach you any manners?"
The white cloaked figure started to chuckle a bit at Lina's comment.
"What's so funny?" Lina demanded.
"How so much like your sister you are, Lina Inverse."
Lina's eyes widened at the comment as she wondered how did this freak knew her name and even more so about her sister. Something about this guy made a chill run down her spine as the blaze crackled around them.
"I was glad that you split up from the rest of your friends. It would be so much harder to have this conversation if you were in their company. Now however, they can be dealt with."
Lina gritted her teeth a bit as she glared at the figure. There was no use in trying to go find the others after she saw how fast this guy could move. No, she had her hands full here, Lina just hoped that the others would be able to handle themselves better.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Lina demanded.
"My you are a noisy girl," he bemused as he pulled the hood down from his cloak. "I am Vice, one of the most ancient of Vampires that walk this world," he announced triumphantly flourishing his cape as he awaited Lina's reaction.
"Pull the other," Lina snapped causing Vice to face fault.
"What is that suppose to mean!" Vice rose up in protest, a slab of stone still on his head.
"There is no way that you can be a Vampire," Lina huffed crossing her arms and turning away from him.
"And why is that?" Vice inquired as he brushed the slab of stone off of his head.
"First, What kind of Vampire has a simple name like Vice?" Lina declared pointing one finger at him accusingly.
"Me," Vice retorted pointing at himself.
It was Lina's turn to hit the ground.
His eyebrow twitching as he glared at Lina, Vice remarked, "Is that your only reason?"
"Ha, not a chance," Lina replied quickly recovering. "Second, that white cloak that you are wearing!"
"What's wrong with it?" Vice commented examining it a bit. "I mean, it's made by top quality seamstresses and uses only the best silk." He appraised as Lina sweatdropped.
"Everyone knows that Vampires only wear BLACK capes!" Lina reasoned.
"Now that just faulty logic and reasoning," Vice sighed waving his hand in front of his face. "Are you quite down yet?" he asked politely.
"I still have one final reason!" Lina stated as she pointed her finger toward the sky. "Third, it is in the middle of the day! Regular Vampires would shrivel up in the light of day. And since you don't seem to be having a problem you are obviously not a vampire," she concluded with a snap of her finger.
Clapping his hands, Vice mused, "Impressive deductive skill, how unfortunate it is for you that I am really a Vampire."
"What?" Lina gaped striking an odd pose.
"It is true that most common vampires would be shrivel away to nothing by the light of the sun, but I on the other hand am not normal," he smirked revealing his fangs.
Edging back a bit, Lina declared, "Cheater!"
"Nani?" Vice stuttered his eyes becoming little black dots.
"You cheat, sunlight was one of the only weakness that kept the playing field fair." She accused as question marks appeared over Vice's head.
"You are certainly unpredictable," he sighed to himself.
"If you are truly a vampire like you said then there is one way for you to prove it to me," Lina stated as Vice stared at her.
"And that would be?"
Holding up a wooden stake and hammer, she beamed, "Let me stake you through the heart!"
Hitting the ground for the second time, before popping right back up, Vice complained, "Why would I do something like that?"
"Because if it works and you die, then I know for sure if you are a cheating vampire." Lina smiled at him.
"That would kill anyone," he muttered.
Smiling evilly, Lina added, "And so would this! Flare Lance!"
A lance of pure fiery energy materialized in her hand as Vice took a step back from the sudden brilliance, shielding his eyes from the brightness. Taking the initiative, Lina blasted the spear straight into Vice's chest as the force of the spell ripped him off his feet. His screams echoed as he was hurled backward into a battered building before the spell exploded.
"Well, how about that." Lina snapped her finger as the cloud of debris blew by her.
"Most impressive."
Lina froze in shock as the cloud of debris cleared to reveal the battered form of Vice looking a bit singed from the blast. Most obvious was the gaping hole in his chest that was burned through by the spell's power. His eyes glowed an angry red as he stood there for a bit before grabbing his burned cloak and tossing it away.
"That was pretty devious of you, little girl. But I'm afraid you would have had better luck using something either black or astral to fight someone of my power level." He smiled as the hole in his chest slowly sealed itself up.
Lina on the other hand wasn't listening as she was quickly recounting all of the spells that she knew that would be effective against the undead. In summary, she was coming up rather short on spells that she could toss at him.
"Hey," Vice interrupted her thoughts.
"Time out!" Lina announced crossing her hand in an X in front her.
"What know?" Vice muttered sweatdropping, but still keeping his distance from her in case this was another of trick.
"You owe me another answer." Lina accused.
"What are talking about?" Vice asked.
"This," Lina pointed out to him.
Lina gritted her teeth a bit as she glared at the figure. There was no use in trying to go find the others after she saw how fast this guy could move. No, she had her hands full here, Lina just hoped that the others would be able to better handle themselves.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Lina demanded.
"My you are a noisy girl," he bemused as he pulled the hood down from his cloak. "I am Vice, one of the most ancient of Vampires that walk this world," he announced triumphantly flourishing his cape as he awaited Lina's reaction.
Vice sweatdropped as Lina threw that last bit of the recapped scene away, as he wondered what was up with this girl. Grumbling to himself a bit, he muttered, "So you want to know what I am after is that it?"
Nodding, Lina added, "I want to know why you are working with the Mazoku to do whatever you are doing,"
"The Mazoku?" Vice commented.
"Don't play dumb with me, we know that all this trouble is part of some weird Mazoku Conspiracy to destroy the status quo." Lina pointed as lots of confusion marks were surrounding Vice. "So out with it, what are you planning? Does it have to do with another Demon War? Resurrecting the Rube Eye? Freeing all of the other Mazoku from captivity? All of the above and more?"
"I honestly have no clue what you are talking about," Vice sighed crossing his arm. "I was sent here to have a little chat with you, while the others took care of your friends. You we need, they are just simply in the way." He explained.
"But that's impossible," Lina muttered as Vice chuckled.
"Looks like your sources were misinformed, though there is a free Mazoku very close by here. If you want to find him then, enter the Labyrinth of Time, the guy has been trapped there for the last seven hundred years. Don't bother asking me where the place is, I've been informed that you were already on your way there soon. If of course your friends survive that is."
"Wait," Lina cried but in a blink on an eye, Vice was nowhere to be found. Looking down at his scorched white cloak, Lina muttered, "What are you up to?"
Val watched Lina quietly from the alley before he turned and limped off.
Pieces of rubble clattered to the ground as Gourry sprinted his way through the debris filled streets of the dock area of the port town. Gripping his sword in his hand, he ducked to the side as a huge spinning wave of sound tore through the path before him. Skidding down to his knees in a stop, Gourry panted as a figure stepped out of the cloud of rubble.
"You're very good, Gabriev. Better then I expected, but that still isn't going to save you."
A long cape that looked more like a rug in Gourry's opinion covered his attacker wearing a tilted scarecrow like hat. The metal of the stranger's sword glinted in the sunlight as bits of concentrated sound hummed along the edge. Lifting the blade in the air, the attacker swung it down as it released another arc of sound that screamed toward Gourry.
"Run all you want, but you'll never escape the power of my Howling Sword."
Diving out of the way from the last blast, Gourry commented, "Actually, I feel that running is a very good way to take time to plan a strategy."
"Find then, see if you can plan your way out of this."
Gripping his sword in both hands, the stranger lifted his sword high above his head as he prepared to unleash an even bigger blast. There was a sudden crackle in the air as a rather large stone rock plastered itself across his face. A still moment passed before the stone dislodged itself and clattered to the road as the man followed soon afterward.
"Well, like throwing the rock was a pretty good idea." Gourry commented squatting down next to the dude. Poking the stranger with a stick, Gourry remarked, "You still alive?"
"Damn you," the figure choked twitching on the ground.
"Glad to hear that," Gourry remarked as he pulled the Howling Sword out of the guy's grip. "This is dangerous to leave hanging around. If some kid finds it, it could cause a lot of problems." Looking toward the bay, Gourry smiled as he chucked the blade into the water.
"Gaaah!" the stranger gaped at the loss of his sword.
"See, problem solved," Gourry smiled back.
Glaring angrily at Gourry as he squeezed his fist, the strange barked, "I will have my revenge against you, Gourry Gabriev!"
"Oh okay," Gourry remarked scratching his head, "By the way, what was your name again?"
Nearly tripping as he stomped off, the stranger declared, "My name is Zangulus, don't forget it!"
Watching as Zangulus stormed off in frustration, Gourry sighed as he looked at all of the destruction that was wrought in the area. He was just glad that most of the people had cleared out before Zangulus started leveling everything on sight. Sheathing his blade back into its sheath, he wondered how that man knew his name.
"So you were watching us, Val?" Gourry asked glancing to the alleyway.
Appearing out of the alley with a smile, leaning on his crutch, Val remarked, "You really didn't need my help now did you?"
"Nope," Gourry remarked before he looked puzzled at Val. "I'm halfway across the city, how did you get there so fast with that limp of yours?"
"We all have our secrets," Val stated as he turned around.
"Come, we need to find Jedah," he said as he staggered off.
"What about Lina?" Gourry asked following up behind the Ryuzoku. "I mean it looks like whoever did this attack knew about us quite well."
He's sharp, Val thought as he remarked, "I'm sure that she is fine."
Jedah sauntered through the shattered market place, making his way around the numerous piles of rubble and debris that were littering the street. Most of the fire around this area had all but completely died out only leaving a few small bits of ember glowing. Passing by abandoned market stands, he made sure to swipe anything interesting that he spotted.
After filling his pockets, he gave a happy whistle as he paused before a rather large fountain that was in the middle of this place. It was composed of a giant marble gargoyle spouting the water into the surrounding basin from its grotesque mouth. The surface of the statue was rough from the constant weathering of the coastal winds.
"Ugly," Jedah commented looking at the fountain.
Turning to go, Jedah's ear perked a bit as he heard what sounded like a low buzzing noise that was rapidly approaching. Dropping to the ground, a huge gust of shattering wind tore just above him completely tearing the fountain statue apart before slamming straight into a building.
"What in the world was that?" Jedah coughed as he looked toward the wrecked building.
Through the smoke, a rather strange looking foot stepped out of the rubble of the wrecked building revealing it to be attached to a leg. That leg was attached to a rather large fish that had a set of arms and another leg as well.
Jedah's eye went wide as he stuttered, "A Fish-man?"
"Gwaaah!" the fish-man roared waving its hands in the air wildly.
"Nani?" Jedah stuttered in disbelief at the fish-man as it continued its odd antics.
"I am Rahanimu, the Furious Fish-man!" Rahanimu announced it a rather large proclamation. "I have been sent to kill you, Jedah."
"Me," Jedah remarked pointing at himself meekly.
Chuckling, Rahanimu laughed, "You've already had a taste of my furious flaming strike attack! However, next time I'm not going to miss you."
"You mean you were that strange furious wind the tore through everything?" Jedah gasped looking around at all the destruction around them. "Wow, I am surprised."
"And you should be," Rahanimu smiled crossing its arms.
"Because here I thought your only ability was to stink so badly that I could smell you a mile away." Jedah beamed.
"What!" Rahanimu spouted furiously stomping his foot on the ground. "You are about to die and all you can do is insult my awesome ability?"
Scratching his head in thought, Jedah nodded.
Rahanimu gaped as he facefaulted into the ground in a crater of rubble.
"But if it's a fight you want, then you better be ready for a surprise." Jedah warned.
Sneering at the arrogant pest, Rahanimu growled, "And what can a wimp like you do?"
"How about this?" Jedah smiled lifting his hand up.
"Do your worse."
"Okay," Jedah smirked, before he screamed, "Oh my, what the heck is that?"
Rahanimu instinctively turned his head toward where Jedah was pointed looking blankly at what had caught the boy's attention. A few short moments later, several sweatdrops appeared on his head as he realized what had just happened.
Twisting around, he cursed, "Damn you."
The spot that Jedah had stood in was vacated, a trail of dust could be seen zigzagging through the streets in a direction opposite of the fish-man. Growling in frustration, Rahanimu hovered up into the air as he shot off after the fleeing Jedah.
"I can't believe he fell for that one," Jedah laughed to himself as he ran down the street as fast as he could. "But that only gives me a few moments to live before he splatters me against the stone floor," he moaned as he could hear the buzzing noise again.
Ducking back to the ground, Rahanimu came blazing over Jedah as he veered upward and came to a stop hovering overhead. Jedah slowly lifted his head up as he looked at the steaming form of the massive fish-man above him.
"This is not good," Jedah muttered.
"Die!" Rahanimu screamed flipping upside down so that his top faced Jedah. "Furious Spine Assault!"
Hundreds of sharp spine spikes came flying out of the fish-man's back as they came showering down upon Jedah. Screaming like a girl, Jedah danced around crazily as he nimbly avoided all of the spikes as they tore through the pavement of the street. This went on for a good hour before Rahanimu finally ran out of spikes to shoot out.
Lying sprawled on the shattered street clutching his chest, Jedah moaned, "Almost bite it that time."
"You're very lucky kid," Rahanimu growled as he hovered down to just a few feet above the ground.
"Actually, I was just thinking that I live an interesting life," Jedah smirked as he stood up. Scratching his head, he muttered, "Well I guess it's time to finally end this.,"
"Yes, lets." Rahanimu growled pouring himself up for another dive.
"You first," Jedah offered.
"Furious flaming strike attack," Rahanimu roared as he charged straight toward Jedah.
Smiling at the approaching fish-man, Jedah smirked, "Check Mate."
"Nani?" Rahanimu stuttered.
A huge explosion tore through the area of town sending another seismic shock wave through the town, unsettling some of the already damaged buildings. Huge columns of smoke rose from the area as it was reduced to a rather innocuous crater with only a few shattered rubbles to mark the remains of buildings.
"What was that?" Lina remarked turning toward to the source of the explosion. "I wonder if the others are okay?" she muttered to herself. "Well except for Jedah."
Running in the direction toward the explosion she made her way through the rubble torn streets as she came to the edge of rather small crater. Standing on the edge, she could make out that the crater seemed to go quite a big down. It had even pierced through the sewers as the water was running down the sides onto the slightly melted rocks on the bottom.
Whistling at the destruction, Lina remarked, "Wonder what happened?"
Then a voice that she really didn't feel like hearing came echoing out of the crater.
"Ouchie, that really hurt. Flaming strike, indeed." Jedah moaned.
Smoke from the crater quickly dissipated as it revealed lying among the rubble at the bottom of the crater was a rather singed Jedah. His face was slightly blackened from ash, as he looked up to see Lina staring down at him from the top of the crater.
"I should expect this sort of wanton destruction would be your fault, Jedah!" Lina barked putting her hand to the hip. "Do you have any consideration for the consequences of your action!" she demanded as Jedah's face puffed up.
"Like you're any better!" Jedah spouted back waving his hand in the air. "I heard about all of your little "Accidents" back in the Guilds."
"Those were not "Accidents", I was completely in control and knew what I was doing!" Lina retorted stomping her feet on the ground.
"Oh so you meant to blow them up?" Jedah countered.
"ARRGHH!" Lina wailed tugging her hair.
The little conversation battling was cut to a close, when the sounds of cracking echoed through their ears. Cracks quickly appeared around the area that Lina was standing on as it broke off from the rest of the edge and went tumbling down the crater. Lina was unfortunately taken along down with the ride as she landed headfirst in the crater.
"Glad you could join me," Jedah commented to Lina.
Walking up to the edge of the crater on the opposite side was Gourry and Val, who could audibly hear the sounds of Jedah and Lina's argument. Looking over the sides to watch the two continue their fighting, Gourry sighed as he shook their head.
"Those two don't seem to get enough do they?" Gourry commented to Val.
Looking around at the damage, Val turned and replied, "Well, Lina has a rather confrontational personality. She can't help but get into a fight with someone."
"Well, I hope this doesn't hinder the group." Gourry remarked as he sat down on a part of the rubble. "Lina is quite deadly when she focus her mind on something. Not to mention she can get rather scary sometimes."
"That's very true," Val nodded as he too took a seat. Rubbing his bandaged hand absently, he commented, "I'm just happy that all of you managed to make it out of this alive."
"There is something I've been meaning to ask you."
"Yes?"
"You said that the enemy that we were fighting was the Mazoku."
"That's correct," Val nodded, "Is something bothering you?"
"The person that attackedme in city was a human, and I question that the people that Jedah and Lina fought were even Mazoku too." Gourry stated.
"So you want to know why there was human doing this and not a Mazoku?" Val concluded as Gourry nodded. "The human you fought was more then likely aligned with the Mazoku that are involved with this incident. The Mazoku are very cautious of actually appearing because they know of our ability to sense their presence."
"You can sense their presence?" Gourry replied astonished.
"That is correct. All ryuzoku, elves, and half-elf are capable of actually sensing the Mazoku presence when they take form on this world. That is why the Mazoku have to be wary of their activities in areas like city, since there is quite a large chance that they would be detected. It doesn't surprise me that they are using non-Mazoku agents to deal with us. The Mazoku will probably only show themselves when they feel that is absolutely necessary. Understand, Gourry?"
Gourry's head bobbed up and down as the sound of snoring could be heard emanating from his mouth as a sweatdrop appeared over Val's head. Shaking his head sadly, he turned and looked down at the fighting Lina and Jedah.
"The sister of the Knight of Ceiphied Luna Inverse. The path of your destiny is far greater then any could possibly imagine," Val mused silently to himself.
Gourry continued to keep his eyes closed as he heard the last part of what Val had muttered. He didn't know what it meant, but there is something else going on here. But for now, he could really use some sleep anyway.
Val winced at Gourry as the snoring got louder.